Lucas, in a playful mood, said a huge opening weekend would persuade the studios to finance a second "Red Tails" movie - a prequel - "that Spike Lee's gonna make!"

Initially, no studio would finance the film because of its potentially controversial and off-beat subject matter.

Instead, the studio financed a $20 million large-scale campaign to provide a press junket, posters, billboards, and trailers for TV that highlighted the film's fight scenes.

Gerber explained the format choice, "It was just hard to find bankable names that the studio would finance a $20 million movie with.

Because no studio would finance the film, Van Peebles put his own money into the production, and shot it independently.

"I think it's a year in which studios based in Los Angeles have financed and released some very, very interesting pictures," he said.

Most studios, in fact, will not finance a project unless they have a shot at breaking even at the box office.

For years filmmakers have toyed with projects about James Dean but were locked in a Catch-22: studios would only finance the movie with a star, or at least a name actor.

Most other major studios finance the bulk of their films with their own money.

Usually the connubial curse sets in when star couples in heat become delusional about what the audience might like to see, and studios finance their follies thinking they're doubling their box-office money.